


Worlds Apart

by NekoMida



Category: Captain America (Movies), Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Horizon: Zero Dawn Fusion, F/M, character is secretly immortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26091220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoMida/pseuds/NekoMida
Summary: Aloy finds herself in the company of a man with a beguiling past.
Relationships: Aloy/James "Bucky" Barnes
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	Worlds Apart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Entwinedlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/gifts).



When Aloy had first come to Meridian, she wasn’t expecting to find much other than revenge amid the sprawling, urban city. Though her heart yearned to explore the city and all its ventures, finding Olin and getting vengeance was the priority. But when Erend mentioned that there was someone who could help her more than he could, she jumped at the chance of meeting them, insisting on it.

She hadn’t expected to be taken to the highest mountains, near the Banuk settlements, where snow capped the mountains and whispered tales of death and the Old Ones. Ruins jutted out of the mountainside as they trekked through the Cut, slipping into the ruins that hummed with life despite the permafrost and constant chill. They went deep into the mountain, deeper than Aloy had ever been, her breath freezing in the air as she saw a campfire up ahead, with someone else sitting there.

The figure raised upwards, a stance Aloy could only recognize as defensive, and Erend held up his hands towards the figure.

“There you are. Got someone in need of your expertise.” His gloved thumb jutted back at Aloy, to which she frowned, the Focus on her head pinging as she tapped it to scan the area. 

“Go away, Erend. Nobody needs my expertise in anything.” A male voice answered, the stance slipping from defensive to relaxed, though he paused as he saw the Focus. “Turn that off.”

“My Focus? Why?” Aloy answered, the grip on her spear tightening.

“I like my privacy.”

Reluctantly, she turned it off, though her eyes were still suspicious of the man. Erend seemed to know him, but there was something in her gut that said he was hiding something. Aloy just didn’t know what.

“I need your help navigating the ruins of the Old Ones to find a man named Olin.” Her fists clenched, remembering the slaughter of the day just as fresh as it had happened. “He massacred new Braves at the Proving, and tried to kill me because I look like a woman on the Focus. The killers saw me through his Focus, and I want to know why.”

The man in front of her sighed, and shuffled towards them, though the way he moved made his large frame seem like it was dragging to the left. When he got closer, Aloy could see scruff on his face, bedraggled hair that was in need of a trim, and startling blue eyes that made her instinctively step back. Those were eyes that had seen things, a killer’s eyes.

“It’s because you look like her that they’re hunting you. They think you’re her.” He tapped the side of his head with his right hand, the leather glove making an ashen mark on his skin. “You should go ask her what the hell they want.”   
Aloy stormed up to him, avoiding Erend trying to stop her, and poked her finger into the plates of metal at the man’s chest, frowning. “And Erend here seems to think that you’re a miracle worker, but I guess we can’t get what we want, can we? Erend, let’s go. I’ll just have to track him on my own.”

She could feel his eyes staring at her as she turned back, heading away from the Cut towards the Sundom, where she would exact vengeance for the friends that she could have made, the people who might have accepted her otherwise.

Days passed, nights blurring together amid the hum of machines in the distance, and Aloy awoke to the sound of footsteps, jolting upwards. Her bow was drawn just as the figure appeared to her in the flame’s lights, just as she notched an arrow and let it fly into the left shoulder of the figure to disarm them.

“Damn it!” The arrow glanced off of the shoulder, and she heard the man cursing softly, rubbing his shoulder. “You people and your arrows, I swear.”

“So you came after all.” Aloy’s lips were turned down into a frown, and the man shook his shaggy hair, before running a bare hand through the greasy locks. 

“I figured you could probably use a hand. I’m not used to people who don’t want to hurt me, other than Erend.” He stared into the flames, gaze locking to Aloy’s as he examined her armor. “Carja armor isn’t the best thing to sleep in out here in the wilderness. It slows your reactions down in case of a surprise.”

“Which is why I was sleeping in the grass.” Her eyes stared at the shoulder she’d shot, before crouching in front of the man. “You’re lucky that arrow hit your armor and not your bones.”

“I’m not wearing armor on the left side.” He paused, and slowly slid the heavy leather glove from his hand, revealing fingers made of a dark metal. They curled inwards, then outwards, just as fluid as bone and muscle would have been in their place. 

Speechless, Aloy’s curious fingers reached out towards the metal hand, the construction akin to something the Old Ones would have had. She’d seen the images in her Focus, observed each and every joint in fascination, but seeing it in person was different. Just as her fingertips were about to brush the cool metal, though, he withdrew, the fingers clenching into a fist slightly.

“I’d like to not talk about it. The memories are painful.”

“I understand.” Even as her curiosity was tugging at her heart, dying to see what the metal felt like, to know how it moved like that, to just know more about the things that would never be in this world again. “It must have quite a story behind it, then.” Absently, her fingers touched the necklace that Rost had given her before the Proving, stroking the carved bone gently.

“You could say that. And a lot of misery too.” Her companion sighed, running his flesh hand over his face, before sitting next to the fire, legs stretched out. “Seems like that’s all it ever did, really--the technology, I mean.”

Laying back down, though keeping an eye on her guest, Aloy shrugged. “There was so much that they left to us, and I haven’t even figured out who this woman I see is, other than her name and what she looks like.” Calloused fingertips pulled at the grass, listening to the sound of machines in the distance and the nocturnal wildlife all around them. “The ruins are so deep, so curious, and I still know nothing other than what I’ve found there, little bits and pieces of the past.”

“Better that you not know. Knowledge of that kind is painful, and seeking it out is foolish.” The man huffed slightly, tossing a bit of wood into the fire to keep it going. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll help you find what you’re looking for.”

Aloy laid back in the grass, a bit of a frown on her face as she stared up into the star-speckled sky, the world dark other than the fire shared between them and the fireflies humming around them. Sleep eluded her, but she rested, still wary of the stranger that Erend had set to introduce her to. She still hadn’t learned his name, though her dreams made curious passes at the metal fingers flexing just as her own would.

One did not simply have technology from the Old Ones, especially not in such a manner. Limbs were lost and life went on, the rest of the tribe caring for the injured and the weak as time came upon them. But never would they have something like this. Perhaps it was Oseram in nature; that would explain how Erend knew the man that had brought two rabbits to eat as she woke, roasting them over the embers that were slowly dying.

There was a ferocity to her partner that she didn’t know or recognize until a Watcher was upon them, metal claws ripping into flesh as her companion’s hand smashed into the lens, rendering it sightless--and worthless, for that matter. The shards would have been nice for later on, as supplies for two would be difficult to procure with him lacking a weapon other than a spear and the metal arm.

“Watch it, Red. I can get zapped by these things, but it’d be better if you didn’t. Can’t repair things like they used to be able to, after all.” Her companion gave a slight turn of his lips, into what Aloy would consider a small smirk, before it disappeared completely, only to be fed by the stoic sadness that visibly weighed on his frame. “Good thing I got the Hintergold down by the river, and the Grey Omen from the mountains still in my pouch.”

“You know this would be easier if you’d tell me your name. It’s not like we’re in Nora lands anymore, and All-Mother won’t haunt you if you don’t have one.”

“I have a name, but most people find it strange to their native tongue.” A thoughtful look crossed over his face, a glimmer of hope in the startling blue eyes, fleeting just as quickly as it had arrived. “They used to call me Bucky. I suppose that’s pretty close to what your language would offer as a name now anyways.”

“You sound like you’re an Old One, talking like that.” Aloy stretched her bowstrings out, though Bucky didn’t respond to her prodding.

“Those people? Surely not. I’m much older than that.” He was quick to retort back to her, rubbing the back of his neck with the flesh hand. “I’d hope my manners were much better than a bunch of bickering youngsters who destroyed the planet.”

If Aloy wanted to ask, she couldn’t; just as they neared the camp, there were Corruptors everywhere, crawling around the cultists and through the dirt paths. “Monsters from the Old World.” Her heart sank, and she took in a deep breath, hands shaking as Bucky patted her shoulder, drawing them into the deep grass.

“Take a breath, and then start firing at them. Aim for the weak parts and let me go do the dirty work, anything up close and personal.” He acted strange, even more than the voice that was speaking to her through the Focus on her head. Once she was ready, Aloy started to fire arrows into every Corruptor she could, dodging attacks and getting hit with singeing lasers that fired from within their bodies.

She didn't see Bucky in the chaos, snapping necks like it was the thing he was born to do, slaughtering the cultists that fired upon him. And though it was over before she knew it, he’d disappeared, leaving only a bit of a blood trail behind, leaving just as quickly as he came. It frustrated her to no end, feeling as though she had someone who was just as curious as she was, and just as bitter with their circumstances as she had been. Olin could wait for a few days; his family would still be alive and despite her wish to avenge the fallen Nora who might have become her friends, Aloy left him alive.

But even following the blood trail Bucky left behind wasn’t enough to catch up to him. Maybe she’d find him again in Meridian. Everything in the outlands seemed to draw towards Meridian, the city of progress and technology a haven from the machines that roamed outside of it. 

Erend had been waiting for her, the news traveling fast to the city and just as surprised as she was that Bucky had actually come along to find her himself.

“He’s not much for outsiders, or people in general. Holes himself up in the Cut, away from the rest of us.” Erend shrugged, and took a sip of his drink, sitting at one of the numerous stalls across the city that provided such a service. Aloy had opted for water instead of alcohol, wrinkling her nose at the scent left on Erend’s breath as he spoke. “Although when Ersa and I found him, he wasn’t much more than the frozen landscape he calls home.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means he ought to keep his mouth shut and learn when to tell someone’s story, if they want it told.” The voice sounded behind them, and Aloy turned, finding herself face to face with a slightly less scruffy Bucky, his hair cropped shorter than before and the scruff much neater on his face.

“You could just tell me yourself, you know. I wouldn’t need to pry into Erend’s business otherwise.” Aloy’s lips turned up in a slight smirk, noting the armor that Bucky sported was newer, if a bit worn, the plating shimmering in the dying light of the sun.

“You’ll find out eventually. And when you do, then you’ll know why I stay away from these cities.” Bucky shrugged, though Erend gave him a side-eyed glance. 

“You’re terrible at flirting, you know. You got all dressed up and got a haircut just in case she showed up, and after dragging your miserable hide all the way to Meridian dripping blood like it was the thing to do.”

“Like you’re any better, Erend. Aloy’s an intelligent woman and you’re dragging her off for a drink at the bar like she’s some sort of local girl.” Bucky’s brow quirked, before his left hand drifted towards his chest, covered in a leather glove once again. “I’m sure that when she finds the truth out, she’ll ask me herself. Until then, I’d rather not talk about it.”

Erend snorted, watching as Bucky left, before taking a swig of his drink, the wooden cup clinking against the table. “What a showoff. You’d think after his family line made sure that they recorded everything that he’d be a little more open to telling. Especially you.”

This piqued her interest, but Aloy shuffled away from the thoughts, too distracted by the man in her head calling for her to explore the ruins. How he’d managed to get into her Focus, she didn’t know; but he was certainly there, and he had knowledge that she didn’t--namely of the network she could crash to invade the darker parts of the ruins in the north.

\-----

Meeting HADES face to face, albeit in a much more literal way than Aloy would have hoped, brought fear surging forth as the camp blew up behind her, throwing her rappel cord to the ground and her along with it. Helis was hot on her trail, and the soreness in her limbs did little to assist her escape. The bullets that pierced her side didn’t either, tearing through flesh and armor alike as her blood ran red into the hides at her waist. Just as she saw Helis above her, there was a flash of metal, and a roar of pain. Someone scooped her up, running away from the situation, just as her head lulled backwards into their arm, darkness taking over.

Waking up brought the world spinning into view, nausea permeating her senses as she winced, pain in her side. The leather there was stripped away, cut a bit jaggedly but still usable; there were bandages and a powerful smelling medicine on the area that suggested she might have had a wound underneath. 

“Easy, Red. I don’t have anything like the old days, so you need to just lie there for a minute.” A soft baritone sounded, and her eyes drifted towards the sound, looking over the form there. Bucky was sitting in front of a smaller fire, his side turned so that she could see that the metal hand wasn’t the only thing that was metal on him--it was his entire left arm, metal plates interlocked together and moving as fluid as muscle. And the scars that graced the top of his shoulder, where metal met flesh...angry and red, deep and old.

“Bucky?”

“You’re lucky that I know how to work these things better than Sylens does.” He tapped the tiny metal piece on the floor, a secondary Focus that had to be his own. “But that comes with age, I guess. I was lucky enough to be around when they made the silly things.”

He was crouching in front of her faster than she could blink, the flesh hand behind her back to help her sit up with ease. But Aloy’s fingers ran along the metal plates, watching the involuntary shiver Bucky gave as she pulled back, fascinated.

“They’re so smooth. Nothing like the metal we have.”

“S’not the only special thing about them. I can feel your fingertips, just like my own skin. The sensation is...different...but it feels that same. There’s pain there too, but that’s just as real as regular pain.” There was a bowl of cool water next to her, and his hand held it up so she could take it to drink. “Easy, Red. The water’s not going to leave once you drink it.”

There were too many thoughts swirling in her head, too many things that he’d said that made no sense. Aloy’s eyes strained, and her hand absently went back to the metal one, feeling the grooves there just as her head started swimming with pain. “Gotta keep going…find out what Elisabet Sobeck left.”

Cool fingers twitched slightly beneath her warm ones, and Bucky shook his head. “Not for a couple of days you’re not. I’ll tell you what I know but you can’t tell anyone. Only Erend and Ersa know the truth, and Erend still doesn’t know the full truth. But for now, just close your eyes and rest.”

So began their long talks over the next couple of days, medicine applied to her wounds just as soon as Aloy was comfortable, Bucky regaling her with a fantastic tale of his own--he wasn’t a descendent of an Old One, he was an Old One, older than they were even by nearly another hundred years. It sounded too incredulous, too much, and Aloy could understand his dislike of people and machinery when all it had ever done was fracture his body and destroy his psyche. He’d been kept in cold storage facilities by other superhumans, and hidden away from the world, until he’d woken up in a cracked tube, cryogenics doing little to help him understand that the world was so new, so different than when he’d slept.

There had been no one to lean on, and he’d hidden away in the depths of the facility that had held him, everything he knew long gone. Erend and Ersa had been exploring the ruins as children when they found him, and had visited him long enough to assume that the man they’d met was his father, when it had been him the entire time. A fondness came into his eyes when Bucky recalled the memory, chuckling at tasting the alcohol with Erend for the first time or teaching Ersa to hunt.

By the time that the recovery period had passed, Aloy knew more about Bucky than she’d wanted to, or even had hoped to know. He was a lonely soul, a man out of his own time and even out of his own heart--something she’d managed to glean as he changed her bandages, the metal hand gentle despite the firmness of the material it was made from. And, truthfully, they were more alike than she’d care to admit; outcasts of society, humbled by painful experiences and abuse from their peers.

“This place has been such a learning curve. It’s like things used to be...sort of. But I’d take a little more caution, if I were you. You’re not Steve, or me, or anything that’s somewhat supernatural with healing. You’re human, fragile, and while not delicate, you take a long time to recover from any sort of wound. Be careful, Aloy.”

His words were like the hot fangs of a Sawtooth grinding into her, stringent and noticeable while being honest. Aloy kind of liked it; Bucky treated her like a human being and not just a motherless outcast, or some sort of goddess-given plague or blessing. He just treated her like Aloy, a capable huntress with issues like any other human being. 

“You’ll have to tell me more about the Old World, Bucky. But first, I need to find out what Dr. Sobeck left, and why these people are trying to kill me just because I look like her.” Aloy ran a hand through tangled braids, eyes pleading with him to understand, before she swung her legs over the edge of the simple bed, wincing at the pain in her side. It still wasn’t fully healed, but it was better than the searing agony from a few days earlier.

“Take care, then. Erend always knows where to find me. And if you need to talk...I programmed your Focus so you can talk with me anytime.” He tapped the side of his head, before placing the Focus against her ear. “Watch yourself, Red. There are much worse things than a few cultists out there, but it’s not up to me to reveal them.”

Nodding, Aloy placed her hand on his chest, the armor disguising the soft hides beneath, and gave Bucky a slight pat on the shoulder. “I’ll hold you to your word, then. And when I get back, you better be ready to tell me everything you know. I’ll listen to your story.”

A sad smile filled his features, and he nodded. “Not bad to be eleven-hundred years old, I think. Might actually have a challenge with you, Red.” Aloy wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but there was a mission to do, and a reason to keep going. She had to know why she was there, who her mother was, and answer so many questions along the way.

But he said that he’d be waiting for her until the end, when her journey was done, and then she could ask him all the questions she wanted to. Aloy only hoped that it would be as awe-inducing as a Stormbird flying in the lightning that streaked across the sky, or as wondrous as the wind in her hair while riding a Strider through the tall grass that dotted her homeland. She couldn’t wait, taking a few eager steps until Meridian was far out of sight, wanting to turn back just to ask Bucky more questions.

It always seemed that time was always too short with the people she came to care about, but this time she’d make it right. Aloy would make sure that she would be back to hear his stories, to learn more about the world before.


End file.
